Outside the Moonlight Monastery, the night hung like a wound that refused to heal. Snow fell softly, blanketing the cracked earth, silencing all sound.
But somewhere beyond human sight, the Ladder trembled.
In a dimension with no name, formless beings stirred. They had no eyes, yet they could see. No mouths, but they could hear. They felt something that shouldn't exist—a Mark not from the Outside, nor from Below.
"...Anomaly..."
The sound wasn't a sound. It was a fracture in reason. One being lifted its head. Then another. They did not measure time like humans. But they knew: someone had passed a boundary without permission.
They called it the First Shadow.
A being that was once human. Now closer to concept than form. It opened its invisible eyes and spoke in a language that could not be spoken:
"The Gate has stirred. Find him. Observe him. If he is truly what we believe… then the World must choose."
---
Inside the monastery, Kael awoke abruptly.
His breath sharp.
There was a voice echoing in his mind, from nowhere and everywhere:
> "You are not part of this script."